Pineapple black rot

Pineapple black rot, also known as butt rot, base rot, or white blister, is a disease caused by Ceratocystis paradoxa (teleomorph) (Thielaviopsis paradoxa[1]: anamorph). C. paradoxa also causes disease in a variety of other tropical plants such as banana, coconut, and sugarcane making it a somewhat dangerous pathogen.[2] Pineapple black rot is the most common and well-known post-harvest disease of the pineapple fruit and is responsible for serious losses in the fresh pineapple fruit world industry. The pathogen is a polyphagous wound parasite and gains entry into the fruit via wounds sustained during and after harvest.[2] The disease only shows up in fresh fruit because the time from harvest to processing it too short for infection occur. Infection can also occur out in the field, but it is not nearly as common as post-harvest infection.

Contents

Fruit that is bruised and/or damage and is kept in unsanitary and high humidity conditions are especially susceptible to this disease. Once infected, the fruit begins to form brown/black lesions. Over time, the lesions become soft, water rot spots making the fruit unappetizing and inedible.[2] In extreme cases, the rot can be so severe that the skin, flesh and core of the fruit breaks down completely and proceeds to leak of out the shell surrounding once healthy fruit. When infection occurs out in the field, brown lesions can develop in wet weather where leaves rub together in the wind[3]. In dry weather, white, paper spots with margins develop. Plants are usually stunted, produce an unusual foul odor, show a soft base rote of the stem and young leaves, and drop their fruit prematurely.[2]

C. paradoxa survives as chlamydospores and infects through woulds or spaces in between individual fruits.[3][4] Chlamydospores are specialized conidia produced specifically for survival by the asexual, or anamorph, stage of the pathogen.[5] The chlamydospores eventually give rise to mycelium, or a network of hyphae, which then lead to further sporulation and infection of pineapple fruit. In fields where pineapple black rot is present, chlamydospores are found in the soil and plant debris of previously infected plants. Pieces of pineapple are planted the following growing season to grow new pineapple. The pieces of pineapple fruit farmers use, however, may contain chlamydospores and, therefore, transmit the disease to the next generation of plants.

Pineapples are grown all around the world and, as a result, pineapple black rot is a widespread disease. They are grown mainly in Asia, Africa, North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe but also in Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papa New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.[3]The pathogen thrives in warm/tropical, high humidity environments. Infection is most common when the crowns of the pineapple are detached in wet weather and then stored in heaps, but the disease may not be see until planting the following growing season. [3]

There are several ways to minimize the effects and transmission of pineapple black rot. If the fruit is already infected, placing it in a hot water bath of a minimum of 50°C can help minimize the post-harvest symptoms.[4] It is also recommended, if you are storing the infected fruit, to is in a triazole fungicide such as triadimenol and/or propiconazole and maintain refrigeration at 9°C which limits the sporulation of conidia. When packing up the fruit and getting ready for transportation, it is important to maintain strict hygiene to avoid unwanted infection between fruits. When trying to minimize transmission of the disease out in the field, it is recommended to improve soil drainage to avoid excess moisture and, therefore, not to plant during wet weather.[3]

Annually, pineapple black rot causes a 10% yield loss.[4] It also leads to a loss of planting material for the following growing season. French Guiana has C. paradoxa identified as a quarantine pathogen because it can be so detrimental to the pineapple industry in that region.

1.
Butt rot
–
Butt rot is a disease of plants, mostly trees, caused by fungi. The fungus attacks the moist, poorly protected undersurface of tree trunks thickest part and it may affect the roots as well, causing a disease known as root rot. It then moves up into the interior of the plant, producing a roughly conical column of dead, rotted plant matter, up to one, such an infection is likely to impair the transport properties of the xylem tissue found at the center of the stem. It also weakens the stem and makes the plant more vulnerable to toppling, one particularly virulent species of fungus associated with butt rot is Serpula himantioides. Ganoderma zonatum Phaeolus schweinitzii Root and Butt Rots of Oaks – North Carolina State University

2.
Pineapple
–
The pineapple is a tropical plant with an edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries, also called pineapples, and the most economically significant plant in the Bromeliaceae family. Pineapples may be cultivated from a cutting of the fruit, possibly flowering in 5-10 months. Pineapples do not ripen significantly after harvest, pineapples can be consumed fresh, cooked, juiced, or preserved. They are found in an array of cuisines. The fiber is used as a component for wallpaper and other furnishings. The word pineapple in English was first recorded to describe the organs of conifer trees. When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them pineapples, other members of the Ananas genus are often called pine, as well, in other languages. In Spanish, pineapples are called piña, or ananá, the pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 m tall, although sometimes it can be taller. In appearance, the plant has a short, stocky stem with tough, when creating its fruit, it usually produces up to 200 flowers, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this. Once it flowers, the fruits of the flowers join together to create what is commonly referred to as a pineapple. After the first fruit is produced, side shoots are produced in the axils of the main stem. These may be removed for propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant, commercially, suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more long, narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins that are 30 to 100 cm long, surrounding a thick stem, in the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into an inflorescence up to 15 cm long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers. Flower colors vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red, the ovaries develop into berries, which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction,13 in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. The pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate, seed formation needs pollination, but the presence of seeds harms the quality of the fruit. In Hawaii, where pineapple is cultivated on an agricultural scale, certain bat-pollinated wild pineapples open their flowers only at night

3.
Plant disease
–
Plant pathology is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens and environmental conditions. Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like organisms, phytoplasmas, protozoa, nematodes, not included are ectoparasites like insects, mites, vertebrate, or other pests that affect plant health by consumption of plant tissues. Control of plant diseases is crucial to the production of food. Plants in both natural and cultivated populations carry inherent disease resistance, but there are examples of devastating plant disease impacts. However, disease control is reasonably successful for most crops, plant diseases cause major economic losses for farmers worldwide. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates indeed that pests and diseases are responsible for about 25% of crop loss, most phytopathogenic fungi belong to the Ascomycetes and the Basidiomycetes. The fungi reproduce sexually and asexually via the production of spores and other structures. Spores may be spread long distances by air or water, or they may be soilborne, Many soil inhabiting fungi are capable of living saprotrophically, carrying out the part of their life cycle in the soil. These are known as facultative saprotrophs, fungal diseases may be controlled through the use of fungicides and other agriculture practices. However, new races of fungi often evolve that are resistant to various fungicides, biotrophic fungal pathogens colonize living plant tissue and obtain nutrients from living host cells. Necrotrophic fungal pathogens infect and kill host tissue and extract nutrients from the dead host cells, see the powdery mildew and rice blast images, below. Significant fungal plant pathogens include, Fusarium spp, magnaporthe grisea Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Ustilago spp. The oomycetes are not true fungi but are fungus-like organisms and they include some of the most destructive plant pathogens including the genus Phytophthora, which includes the causal agents of potato late blight and sudden oak death. Particular species of oomycetes are responsible for root rot, despite not being closely related to the fungi, the oomycetes have developed very similar infection strategies. Oomycetes are capable of using effector proteins to turn off a plants defenses in its infection process, plant pathologists commonly group them with fungal pathogens. Significant oomycete plant pathogens Pythium spp and these are caused by species of Plasmodiophora and Spongospora, respectively. Most bacteria that are associated with plants are actually saprotrophic and do no harm to the plant itself, however, a small number, around 100 known species, are able to cause disease. Bacterial diseases are more prevalent in subtropical and tropical regions of the world

Butt rot
–
Butt rot is a disease of plants, mostly trees, caused by fungi. The fungus attacks the moist, poorly protected undersurface of tree trunks thickest part and it may affect the roots as well, causing a disease known as root rot. It then moves up into the interior of the plant, producing a roughly conical column of dead, rotted plant matter, up to one

1.
Butt rot of palm, caused by Ganoderma zonatum

Pineapple
–
The pineapple is a tropical plant with an edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries, also called pineapples, and the most economically significant plant in the Bromeliaceae family. Pineapples may be cultivated from a cutting of the fruit, possibly flowering in 5-10 months. Pineapples do not ripen significantly after harvest, pineapples

1.
Pineapple

2.
Pineapple and its cross section.

3.
A pineapple flower in Iriomote, Japan.

4.
Pineapple in the starting stage.

Plant disease
–
Plant pathology is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens and environmental conditions. Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like organisms, phytoplasmas, protozoa, nematodes, not included are ectoparasites like insects, mites, vertebrate, or other pests that aff